_Rubens_ (Flemish: 1577-1640). _See_ 38.
"It is interesting to observe the difference in the treatment of
this subject by the three great masters, Michael Angelo, Rubens,
and Tintoret.... Rubens and Michael Angelo made the fiery serpents
huge boa-constrictors, and knotted the sufferers together with them.
Tintoret makes ... the serpents little flying and fluttering monsters,
like lampreys with wings; and the children of Israel, instead of being
thrown into convulsed and writhing groups, are scattered, fainting in
the fields, far away in the distance. As usual, Tintoret's conception,
while thoroughly characteristic of himself, is also truer to the words
of Scripture. We are told that 'the Lord sent fiery serpents among the
people, and they _bit_ the people'; we are not told that they crushed
the people to death. And, while thus the truest, it is also the most
terrific conception.... Our instinct tells us that boa-constrictors do
not come in armies; and we look upon the picture with as little emotion
as upon the handle of a vase, or any other form worked out of serpents,
when there is no probability of serpents actually occurring" (_Stones
of Venice_: Venetian Index, "Rocco, Scuola di San," No. 24).